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Fyvie Castle

Region : AberdeenshireLocation : TurriffDetails : in 1214 it was the court of William the Lion. It is a Large L-plan castle with very long wings and Five towers. Each of the five families built one tower: Preston, Meldrum, Seton, Gordon and Leith. The center, or main block, is known as Seton Tower, which forms a grand arched entrance. This work was commissioned by Alexander Seton, Earl of Dunfermline in 1599. Meldrum Tower on the left, Preston Tower to the right. The Gordon Tower was added in 1777, and in 1890 the Leith Tower was built. The latter was modeled on Huntly Castle, and contains music and billiard rooms, and a gallery and organ.

Paranormal Phenomena : The castle is alleged to be haunted by a Green Lady , and there have been unexplained shrieks and footsteps within the castle. The Douglas room has a stain, which will not wash away

On 8th May 1601 Lady Lilies Drummond, First wife of Lord Alexander Seton died. Seton married again six months later to Grizel Leslie. On their wedding night (27 October) they were awakened by groans and sighs, and in the morning they found the name of Lilies Drummond carved upside down on the window ledge. Carved into the sill, facing outward and some 50 feet above the ground, the inscription can still be seen there today.

Fyvie has a staircase known as The Great Wheel Staircase and it is reputedly haunted by a green Lady, so called because of a green glowing aura. A portrait hanging in Fyvie, which is said to be that of the ghost bears only a slight resemblance to the usual suspect for the ghost – lady Drummond. Some members of the Gordon family say she appears only to them. She is also alleged to emerge from a room, known as the Haunted Chamber, and glide noiselessly through the corridors and rooms of the castle.

The skeleton of a woman was found by workmen renovating the gun room at Fyvie. The remains were given a Christian burial, but ghostly disturbances are said to have increased to the point that the bones were dug up and returned to the castle.

Fyvie Castle is also alleged to be haunted by the ghost of a phantom trumpeter who first made his appearance there in the 18th century. The trumpeter, a man called Andrew Lammie, fell for Agnes Smith, the local miller’s daughter (her parents did not approve of Andrew Lammie.)

Learning that Andrew and Agnes were meeting in secret the Laird, who himself wanted the girl as his mistress, had Andrew seized and sent in slavery to the West Indies. After several years Andrew managed to escape and return to Scotland to look for his beloved Agnes, only to discover that she had died a short while after he had been forcibly taken abroad. Andrew died of shock but before his death swore that the sound of a trumpet would foretell the death of every laird of Fyvie as a reminder of the terrible injustice he had suffered.

Shortly after Andrew’s death the haunting of Fyvie began and for many years afterwards the trumpet would be heard in the dead of night before the death of the laird. On several occasions the shadowy figure of a tall man, dressed in rich tartan, was seen by the castle wall, a figure which always disappeared when approached.